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Child Care Assistance Program Policy Manual Issued 07/2023 Job search at application and redetermination 4.6.6.3 - The parent is not eligible for Extended Eligibility at the end of job search. - If the activity is employment, the parent must verify that they meet the minimum employment requirements that apply at application and redetermination (be working an average of 20 hours per week at minimum wage or 10 hours per week if they are a full-time student). See Chapter 7.4 (Verification – 12-month eligibility). - At the end of job search, if the parent has an employment activity below the minimum employment requirement, MEC² requires an override to get ineligible results. See the MEC2 User Manual for the “Job search ends and remaining activity does not meet requirements” workaround. - If the activity is education, the parent must verify that they meet the education the criteria in the agency’s county and tribal child care fund plan. See Chapter 7.4 (Verification – 12-month eligibility). • If ineligible at the end of job search, the agency can approve the case to close or place the case on Temporary Ineligible (TI) status. See Chapter 8.6 (Temporary Ineligibility). - If the case is on TI status, the parent must meet minimum activity requirements that apply at application and redetermination for the case to change from TI status to Eligible. - If the case is on TI status and 240 hours of job search become available in a new calendar year, job search cannot be used until the next redetermination or reapplication. • If a case closes at the end of job search, see Chapter 12.3.12 (Termination notices – Family). Care can be authorized and paid retroactively to the date job search ended if: - The parent started a new activity before job search ended, - The family reported the new activity within 90 days after the case closed, AND - The family met all eligibility requirements for the time-period after the case closed. Job search at reapplication If a parent used job search outside of an Employment Plan and reapplies for child care assistance in the same calendar year, the family may only use job search at reapplication if all 240 hours of job search were not used with the previous application/redetermination. If fewer than 240 hours of job search remain in the calendar year, the remaining job search hours must be spread over 12 weeks. Care must be authorized at less than the standard 20 hours per week. Divide the remaining number of available job search hours by 12. The result, rounded down to the nearest whole number, is the number of hours per week that can be authorized. Explain to the family that this amount of care can be authorized Example: In January, an application is approved for job search. Job search set up for 20 hours per week for 12 weeks. Parent finds a job meeting minimum employment hours after using 60 hours of job search. The parent has 180 hours of job search remaining for the year. The parent ends the job three weeks later and is put on Extended Eligibility. The parent has not found a new job by the end of the Extended Eligibility period. Case closes. In August, the parent reapplies with a new application requesting job search. The parent has 180 hours of job search left this calendar year. The application gets approved because job search is an eligible activity at application. However, the Service Authorization cannot end earlier than 12 weeks. There are not enough job search hours available to authorize job search at the standard 20 hours per week. The authorized hours for job search the parent would be eligible for at the re-application would be 180 hours/12 weeks = 15 hours per week. The Service Authorization could be approved for 30 hours